Intimidating Butler
Sean Crawford (born September 5, 1984) is an English professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Intimidating Butler. He is signed to WWE for Extreme, and works in NXT Wrestling, WWE's developmental territory. Professional wrestling career Independent promotions (2000–2011) Crawford came to America with his family in 1999, and quickly became enamored with professional wrestling. He chose his ring name the night before his first professional wrestling match, and picked the name "Sterling Mason". Mason debuted on March 22, 2000. Throughout the next few years, Mason appeared for various promotions, including Dory Funk Jr.'s "Funkin Conservatory", where he competed with wrestlers including Paul London, Adam Windsor, and Onyx. In 2002, Mason teamed with "Dreamachine" Chris Caine to win the Funkin Conservatory Tag Team Championship by defeating the team of London and Windsor. In March 2, 2002 Mason debuted for NWA East when he teamed with Sean Stylez to defeat Maxim and Powerhouse Hughes. A week later, he challenged Paul Atlas for the NWA East Three Rivers Championship and lost. On the next few shows, Mason teamed with Mad Mike which eventually led to a shot at The Premiere Players's NWA East Tag Team Championship which they lost. In June, Mason participated in the NWA East X Championship Tournament where he reached the finals of before losing to Axl Law. For the next few months, he would have multiple championship shots which amounted to nothing. In September, Mason participated in the Anniversary Anarchy Lethal Lottery and reached the final before losing to Crusher Hansen. His last match for NWA East for several years came on October 12 defeating CJ Sensation. Since 2003, Mason has made appearances for various independent promotions, being a mainstay of many including Far North Wrestler and Renegade Wrestling Alliance. Mason was part of the Union of Independent Professional wrestlers promotion in both of its incarnations. He won the UIPW Keystone Cruiserweight Championship. Beginning in 2005, he appeared regularly for Far North Wrestling (FNW), and on November 2, 2007, he won a Battle royal to win the FNW Heavyweight Championship and again in October 2009. He defeated Samoa Joe and Rikishi by countout on August 23, 2007 to win the Ballpark Brawl Natural Heayweight Championship. On February 24, 2008, Mason won Absolute Intense Wrestling's Heavyweight Championship by winning a 30-Man gauntlet match. On September 19, 2009, Mason defeated Stryder for the RWA Heavyweight Championship. Mason competed for Pro Wrestling Zero1, and has won the Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship on two occasions. On March 8, 2008, Mason defeated Mr. Wrestling 3 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to win the championship for the first time. He only held the championship for a week, before dropping it to Dr. X on March 15 in Morganville, New Jersey. On May 9, Mason won the championship for the second time, defeating Jake Manning in Limerick, Pennsylvania. He held the championship for just under a month, before losing it to Rick Landell on June 1. Throughout the years Mason has also made sporadic appearances for Ring of Honor (ROH). His debut appearance for the promotion was at Round Robin Challenge II on April 25, 2003, where he teamed with EZ Money in a Tag Team Scramble match won by The SAT. He returned to ROH over two years later at Redemption on August 12, 2005, where he participated in a Four Corner Survival match won by Ace Steel. In October 2005, he lost a singles match to Claudio Castagnoli and a singles match between Mason and Steel at Tag Wars 2006 in January 2006 ended in a no contest due to interference from Chris Hero and the Necro Butcher. Six months later, at In Your Face, Mason and Jason Blade lost a tag team match to the Briscoe Brothers. He made a single appearance in ROH in 2007 at the Fifth Year Festival: Dayton event, losing to Jimmy Rave and another appearance in March 2009 at Steel City Clash, losing to Delirious. 1 Pro Wrestling (2005–2009) Mason made his debut for the United Kingdom-based 1 Pro Wrestling (1PW) at their inaugural show, A Cruel Twist of Fate, on October 1, 2005, defeating D'Lo Brown. He quickly formed an alliance with Abyss, and the pair defeated Sabu and Ulf Herman in a hardcore tag team match on January 7, 2006. In March, Mason competed in a tournament to determine the inaugural 1PW Heavyweight Champion, but was defeated by AJ Styles in a quarter-final match. He moved on to feud with Spud, defeating him on May 26 at Know Your Enemy Night One. At Fight Club 2 in July, Mason defeated Spud in an Iron City Street Fight. Three weeks later, Kennan replaced Matt Hyson in a tag team match, where he and Spud challenged Jody Fleisch and Jonny Storm for the 1PW Tag Team Championship. They were unsuccessful after Mason attacked Spud during the match. At Invincible in August, a tag team match featuring Mason and Hyson versus Spud and Teddy Hart ended in a no contest after several other wrestlers interfered, prompting a 10-man elimination tag team match, which Mason's team won. At Resurrection in April 2007, Mason challenged Romeo Roselli for the Nu-Wrestling Evolution Heavyweight Championship, but was disqualified for using the championship belt as a weapon. He then began challening Ulf Herman for the 1PW Heavyweight Championship, but was unsuccessful in a four-way match on June 29 when Herman retained the championship. Mason failed to win the championship again on June 30 and August 18. On October 13, at 2nd Anniversary Show, Mason defeated Herman to win the championship in a steel cage match. Mason successfully defended the championship against Doug Williams on January 25, 2008, and Martin Stone, Darren Burridge and Abyss in a four-way match the following night. His next defense was on October, when he lost to Johnny Moss via disqualification, and retaining the championship as a result. At the 3rd Anniversary Show that same month, Mason retained the championship against Raven. Mason eventually lost the championship to Martin Stone on April 18, 2009 at To The Extreme, ending his championship reign at 554 days. He continued to feud with Stone in an unsuccessful attempt to regain the championship throughout 2009, and made his final 1PW appearance at the 4th Anniversary Show in November. World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE On April 26, 2006, Mason lost a dark match to The Punisher prior to the SmackDown taping. On June 6, 2006, Mason teamed with Jon Bolen in a loss to Jamie Noble and Kid Kash. Mason appeared on an episode of WWE Heat that was taped on August 6, losing to Val Venis. Mason appeared on the August 10, 2007 episode of SmackDown!, where he was easily squashed by Mark Henry. Developmental territories (2011–present) In March 2010, it was reported that Crawford had signed a developmental contract with WWE. Crawford announced that he would be performing in WWE's developmental territory, NXT Wrestling, under the ring name Intimidating Butler. He debuted on the April 13 edition of NXT, losing a squash match to Kofi Kingston. He would appear on the following episode of NXT, losing to Stalker Santerre. Butler made his WWE television debut as part of an NXT talent highlight on the April 30, 2010 episode of SmackDown!, teaming with Dallas Martinez in a losing effort to Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins of The Shield. Personal life Crawford attended college to get a degree in marketing. Crawford has a brother who is also a professional wrestler, named Bruce "Plucky Duke" Stone. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' **'As Corey Graves' ***''Butler Slam'' (Forward fireman's carry slam) **'As Sterling Mason' ***''UK Ultra'' (Back to belly piledriver) *'Signature moves' **'As Corey Graves' ***Backbreaker, sometimes while slingshotting ***Elbow drop, sometimes from the second rope ***''Helter Skelter'' (Rope hung triangle choke) ***Powerbomb ***Spinebuster ***Spinning side slam **'As Sterling Mason' ***Dragon suplex ***Double knee backbreaker ***Fireman's carry dropped into a backbreaker ***STO ***Tilt-a-whirl powerbomb *'Entrance themes' **"Anarchy in the UK" by Sex Pistols (2000–2010) **'"Oh! Darling"' by Dana Fuchs and Martin Luther McCoy (2010–present) Championships and accomplishments *'1 Pro Wrestling' **1PW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *'Absolute Intense Wrestling' **AIW Absolute Championship (1 time) *'Ballpark Brawl' **Natural Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *'Far North Wrestling' **FNW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *'Funkin' Conservatory' **FC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Chris Caine *'Pro Wrestling Zero1' **Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship (2 times) *'Union of Independent Professional wrestlers' **UIPW Keystone Cruiserweight Championship (1 time) Category:1984 births Category:English wrestlers Category:WWE NXT Category:WWE for Extreme